𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐖𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐃 ━ max mayfield

7│EYE OF THE TIGER

Nancy gave her a concerned look before she turned her attention to Max's more detailed drawings. "Is this what you saw last night?"

"I mean, it's supposed to be. I thought it'd be easier to draw it out than to explain it but. . . not so much."

"Is that. . .?" The older girl held up a page with two people attached to what looked like broken tree trunks.

"It was like they were on display," Max explained. "And then there was this red fog everywhere. It was like a dream. A nightmare."

"You think Vecna's just trying to scare you?"

"With Billy? Yeah. But when I made it here. . . I dunno, something was different. He seemed surprised, almost. Like he didn't want me there."

Jessie's attention narrowed on a space of white in the upper corner of her page. She directed the crayon there and pressed down hard enough on the tip to blunt it. She didn't even care that these weren't her crayons; any mention of last night made her uncomfortable and made the desire to find the right color even more important.

"Maybe you infiltrated his mind," Dustin suggested. "He invaded your mind, right? Is it that big a leap to suggest you somehow wound up in his? Like Freddie Krueger's boiler room."

"Freddie Krueger?" Holly repeated curiously.

"He's a super burned-up dude with razors for fingers," he explained obliviously. "And he kills you in your dreams."

At her sister's horrified look, Nancy shot him a much sharper one. "Seriously?"

"Sorry. It's a movie," Dustin added hastily. "It's not real. Just. . . think about it. What if you somehow unlocked a backdoor to Vecna's world? Like, maybe the answer we're looking for is somewhere in this incredibly vague drawing." He picked up one of the images. This one was mostly an angry red with its only detail being a small, rectangular window that had a rose imprinted on it. "God, we need Will."

"No shit," Max commented.

The brunette finished with her purple crayon and dropped it on the table. Then, she held it up to look at it analytically. "Yeah, this is closer."

"What— exactly— are you looking for?" Dustin asked. He came to stand behind her and copied her narrowed gaze as he tried to see it from her point of view.

"I dunno," Jessie repeated. "But I think it's missing something." She looked over at her other drawings thoughtfully. "Maybe it's more than one color?"

"I still don't understand what it is," he complained.

"Neither do I, that's what I'm trying to figure out." She searched the table for the color that she was looking for. "I— um— hey. Could you pass the black one?" This question was directed at Max.

With more than just their friends present, Jessie was being extra cautious when she addressed the girl that she still held feelings for. She didn't want them escaping into normal conversation and put Max under fire, so she did her best to be formal with her. Unfortunately, formal wasn't exactly what she was best at so she got awkward instead. Either way worked so long as the Wheelers didn't pick up on Max's relationship with her.

Since she hadn't used the other girl's name, Jessie kicked her subtly under the table to get her attention. The redhead gave her a half-confused, half-irritated look for her strange— well, stranger than normal— behavior but conceded. She dropped the black crayon on top of the purple-colored page.

Nancy brought more of Max's drawings towards her as Jessie began to use her new crayon. "Is this a window?" she asked.

"Yeah."